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I applied for a software role at FedEx and was asked to take a personality test

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Re: I applied for a software role at FedEx and was asked to take a personality test

#41

Post by awo34oaw4u »

billy99k wrote: post #2

I once had a SW interview with a job that had a 2-hour long personality test. No tech questions. Just random questions to test my personality. It started out simple, like 'what was the last book you read' to more in-depth situations that had nothing to do with the job. The manager interviewing me (who admit he basically just started managing a month prior) told me he just read a 'great book on management' and wanted…

I got asked "what was the last book you read" in a SW startup interview once. I told them and then the interviewers started arguing amongst themselves about whether or not they liked the book, based on what I had told them about it, instead of asking me what I thought about it and what I learned from it. That was one of about thirty red flags. I left without completing the interview.

Re: I applied for a software role at FedEx and was asked to take a personality test

#42

Post by recursive »

CogitoCogito wrote: post #22
Maro wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interviews are for weeding out poor candidates; what you have left are the good ones. Weeding out poor candidates is not possible with 10-15 minutes informal chats.

> Weeding out poor candidates is not possible with 10-15 minutes informal chats. You do realize you’re replying to a comment showing it _is_ possible right?

I don't realize that. We know that there was a short chat, and that it resulted in filling a position. We don't know whether it's an effective way to filter out poor candidates. Have you done it? What's your success rate?

Re: I applied for a software role at FedEx and was asked to take a personality test

#44

Post by throwaway49849 »

Aside from it being supremely strange, it's just stupid enough that you risk overthinking each image to the point of answering it inaccurately. The person who approved these images has no business assessing personality types if they cannot understand the multiple ambiguous ways that many of these images can be interpreted. You have to try to infer what they probably meant by the image, and discard other valid interpretations.

The tragedy is that the test giver's job is communication and handing complex and subtle interactions, and they're already failing at it.

Re: I applied for a software role at FedEx and was asked to take a personality test

#45

Post by pierat »

whaleofatw2022 wrote: post #13

My weirdest experience is still the one where 6 people in a room have me go through my entire education starting with grade school. For a senior SWE role. Even the body shop recruiter was agast.

"Well, I went to school with [interviewer, one of], and damn can you believe the amount of paste he ate? And he loved eating and flinging boogers. And there was this time when he got..... lice!"

Just start making shit up cause there's no fucking way you're going to be there.

Re: I applied for a software role at FedEx and was asked to take a personality test

#46

Post by JaggedJax »

jacamera wrote: post #31

The pictures are strange but the OP neglected to notice the captions which make the intent much more clear: https://old.reddit.com/r/mildlyinfuriating/comments/1ap1345/...

This is great context. Unfortunately I don't think the test taker had the neglect here. The instructions for this test do not mention the captions, and they clearly don't fit on the screen and are hidden by default on their phone!

To me the neglect here is on the developers of the test for only half supporting mobile, and on FedEx for using such terribly designed test.

This is setting aside whether or not someone thinks personality tests are good or valid tests in the first place.

Re: I applied for a software role at FedEx and was asked to take a personality test

#47

Post by agrippanux »

Maro wrote: post #15
intelVISA wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every job/client I've acquired has been a 10-15min informal chat with a stakeholder and a technical peer, and then an offer. I don't really see the value in going through hiring gauntlets and opt out of any process that looks like it might waste time like that.

Interviews are for weeding out poor candidates; what you have left are the good ones. Weeding out poor candidates is not possible with 10-15 minutes informal chats.

You can definitely weed out poor candidates in 10-15 minutes of informal chats.

What you can't do is weed them all out, and you usually can't tell if someone is a good fit yet.

Re: I applied for a software role at FedEx and was asked to take a personality test

#48

Post by vundercind »

niceice wrote: post #36

You can take it here: https://fedexdataworksprod.traitify.com/assessment/31449c4a-... Each one has a title like "Starter Not a Finisher", "Frequently Change My Mind", "Always Wonder Why", "Easily Offended", "Art Isn't My Thing", "Unstoppable", "Make Friends Everywhere", "Good Enough", "Not My Job", "Tend to Feel Sad", "Volunteering", "Believe the Best of People", "Hard to Start a New Task", "Loves the Social Scene",…

I’m convinced most use of these is actually testing for:

1) bright enough to answer to achieve just about any desired outcome (usually not a high bar),

2) socially/politically aware enough to realize which outcomes will be good, and which will be bad; and,

3) agreeable/compliant enough to go ahead and game the quiz to achieve a good outcome without raising a fuss.

Re: I applied for a software role at FedEx and was asked to take a personality test

#50

Post by spondylosaurus »

foofie wrote: post #19
billy99k wrote: post #2

I once had a SW interview with a job that had a 2-hour long personality test. No tech questions. Just random questions to test my personality. It started out simple, like 'what was the last book you read' to more in-depth situations that had nothing to do with the job. The manager interviewing me (who admit he basically just started managing a month prior) told me he just read a 'great book on management' and wanted…

> I passed the first interview, but the second was going to be a 5-hour remote codeshare/whiteboard interview with the team. I declined the second interview. Last year I interviewed for MongoDB. They proudly boasted that their hiring process consisted of a 7 interview marathon. I asked if that wasn't too many interviews, and the interviewer boasted that they already managed to streamline their process down from 12 in…

Ha, I had a phone interview with MDB for a (contract!) technical writing gig, and they told me the next steps include (1) a one-hour critical thinking test, whatever that means, and (2) a one-hour writing interview.

Not a take-home writing assignment, which would be pretty standard, but a live writing interview via Zoom screen share. Very unusual, but I don't have too many other things on the horizon right now, so I'll see where it goes...

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